Gabon Lifts Eight-Month Social Media Ban, Restoring Access Nationwide
Gabon has lifted a ban on social media imposed eight months ago. The High Communication Authority (HAC) announced the U-turn on Saturday in a televised statement. The BBC has approached the country's media regulator for comment.
The ban was introduced on 17 February, with the HAC saying that online content was fuelling conflict and deepening divisions in the country.
The move came as a shock in the central African nation of about 2.5 million people, where platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram are particularly popular with younger people, who use them for business as well as pleasure.
Many users turned to VPNs in order to continue accessing social media sites following the ban.
The ban was imposed at a time when President Brice Oligui Nguema was facing a wave of social unrest less than a year after his election. Teachers and civil servants had staged strikes over what they said were low pay and poor working conditions.
The opposition said the suspension was an abuse of power.
Nguema won last year's elections with more than 90 percent of the vote, two years after his coup ended more than five decades of rule by the Bongo family.
Nguema had pledged to reform Gabon, a small, oil- and timber-rich country, where digital blackouts were used by previous governments to control information.
